The world of smartphones never stops moving. Every year, a new iPhone comes out, and millions of people wait to see what new features it brings, especially to the camera. The camera is one of the most important parts of any modern phone, and the ability to take great photos is a huge selling point. The iPhone has always been known for its excellent cameras, especially for video, but for a while, it lagged behind some competitors in one key area: how far it could zoom in without losing quality.
This is where the excitement around the iPhone 17’s camera is focused, particularly the periscope telephoto lens. This technology is not completely new in the smartphone world; other major companies have been using it for a few years. But when Apple finally adopts a major camera technology, they often refine and perfect it in a way that makes it seem fresh. The leaks suggest that the iPhone 17, particularly the Pro and Pro Max models, will feature a new and very advanced periscope setup that dramatically increases the optical zoom capability. It promises to shrink the distance between you and your subject, keeping the image clear and sharp.
It is clear that Apple is trying to catch up and even jump ahead in the zoom race with this new hardware. The change is not just about a single lens; it is about building a complete, high-quality camera system that can do almost anything. With these leaks painting a picture of a major jump forward in telephoto performance, the question is, how exactly does this periscope lens technology work inside a thin phone, and what will it let you do that you couldn’t do before?
What Exactly Is a Periscope Camera and How Does It Fit Inside a Phone?
A periscope camera, often called a folded lens system, is a clever trick of engineering used to fit a long lens into a very thin smartphone body. Normal camera lenses work by having all their glass pieces, or elements, stacked straight behind the lens opening. To get a high level of optical zoom, you need a long stack of these lens elements, which makes the camera module stick out far from the back of the phone, creating a very noticeable and bulky bump. The periscope system solves this problem in a smart, almost mirror-like way.
Instead of pointing the lens outward, the periscope lens system is placed sideways, running along the inside length or width of the phone. The light that comes into the camera is first hit by a small prism or mirror. This prism bends the light at a 90-degree angle, redirecting it down the new, longer path inside the phone’s body, where the glass elements can be arranged to create a much longer focal length. This is how you achieve a high level of optical zoom—like 5x or 8x—without adding much thickness to the device. Optical zoom is always better than digital zoom because it uses the actual glass lenses to magnify the image before it hits the sensor, keeping all the detail, whereas digital zoom just crops and enlarges a photo, which makes it blurry and pixelated.
How Will the iPhone 17 Periscope Camera Improve Zoom Quality?
The iPhone 17’s rumored periscope camera is expected to significantly improve zoom quality by moving from Apple’s previous system to a much more powerful optical setup. Older iPhones generally topped out at a 3x optical zoom, which was great for portraits but not much else when trying to capture a distant object. The new setup is rumored to provide 4x optical zoom and even an 8x optical-quality zoom by combining the high-resolution sensor with smart cropping and processing, offering the longest optical-quality reach on any iPhone to date.
This means you will be able to stand far away from a stage at a concert, or on the other side of a sports field, and capture a photo that is crisp and clear, as if you were standing much closer. The high-resolution sensor that works with the periscope is essential. By having a 48-megapixel telephoto sensor, the camera can capture more data, and even when cropping to achieve the 8x optical-quality zoom, it keeps more detail than the old, lower-megapixel sensors. This new system closes the gap with leading Android phones that have already been using similar technology to achieve extreme zoom levels for a few years.
Is Periscope Technology New to the World of Smartphones in 2025?
No, the idea of a periscope lens is definitely not new to the world of smartphones in 2025. Major Android phone makers, such as Samsung, Google, and others, have been using this type of lens for a while. For example, some high-end Android models have featured a periscope or folded lens system that offered up to 10x pure optical zoom, and sometimes even more, for several years now. These phones have allowed users to take incredible, long-distance shots, which has often been a bragging point over the iPhone’s more limited zoom capability.
What Apple is doing with the iPhone 17 is adopting the technology, but likely refining it to work flawlessly within their own camera software and image processing system, which they call computational photography. Apple’s strength lies in making the camera simple to use while producing consistently excellent results across all lighting conditions. The iPhone 17’s periscope is not a groundbreaking invention in 2025, but it is a massive step for the iPhone itself. It brings Apple into the top tier for zoom performance and will likely be paired with better stabilization to keep those highly zoomed shots from looking shaky.
How Does This New Camera Change Everyday Photography?
The addition of an advanced periscope camera on the iPhone 17 completely changes what you can do with your phone camera every single day. Before this, zooming in on something far away usually resulted in a blurry mess, making the shot unusable. With the new level of optical-quality zoom, you can capture subjects that were previously out of reach, and they will still look sharp and clear.
Think about common situations where this matters: you are on a safari trying to photograph a distant animal, taking a picture of a unique architectural detail high up on a building, or grabbing a candid shot of your child playing far across the park. In all these cases, the powerful new telephoto lens lets you crop in with your lens, not with digital pixels, making the photos much higher quality. It also improves portrait photography. A longer focal length, like the 4x zoom offered by the lens, is often considered the perfect distance for flattering portraits, as it gives a beautiful sense of depth and perspective compression that is difficult to achieve with wider lenses. It means professional-looking photos are now much easier to take, even from a distance.
What Other Camera Upgrades are Expected on the iPhone 17?
The periscope lens is certainly the star of the show, but the iPhone 17 is rumored to bring a whole host of other significant camera upgrades across the entire system. One major expected change is the improvement to the Ultra Wide lens. Reports suggest this lens, which is used for wide landscape shots or close-up macro photos, is getting a new, larger 48-megapixel sensor. A larger sensor can capture more light and detail, meaning the Ultra Wide shots will be much clearer and perform better in low-light settings, addressing a common weakness of earlier models.
Another area of focus is computational photography, which is the software and AI that processes the image after you press the shutter. The iPhone 17 is expected to use the powerful new A19 Pro chip to improve things like noise reduction, which cleans up grainy photos taken in the dark, and color accuracy, making skin tones and landscapes look more natural. There are also hints of better video features, like more advanced Cinematic Mode for smoother background blurring, and even higher frame rates for super slow-motion video. All these small but important upgrades work together to make the entire camera experience more professional and capable.
Will the Periscope Lens Affect the Price or Size of the iPhone 17?
Yes, new and advanced technology usually comes with a slightly higher cost, both in terms of money and phone size. The periscope lens is a complex piece of engineering. It requires more precise components and a specific layout inside the phone, which can lead to higher production costs. Because of this, the new periscope lens is often limited to the top-tier phones, like the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, which are already the most expensive models in the lineup.
In terms of size, the periscope design is specifically made to avoid making the phone thicker than necessary. However, the overall camera module—the “camera bump” on the back—might still look different or even slightly larger to hold the new technology and the bigger sensors. Leaks suggest Apple has tried to manage this by redesigning the camera area to make it look a bit more compact or streamlined, even with the new hardware inside. So, while the phone itself remains thin, users should expect the camera system to be a key element of the device’s design, reflecting the power housed within.
Does the Periscope Lens Give the iPhone 17 a Clear Advantage Over Competitors?
The periscope lens helps the iPhone 17 close a very long-standing gap, but whether it gives a clear advantage over competitors is still something people are discussing. The truth is that many Android flagships, especially from companies like Samsung and Google, already have great periscope systems, some even offering more extreme optical zoom levels than the rumored 4x on the iPhone 17. The Android phones have had a head start in this area.
However, Apple’s strength is its ecosystem. The iPhone is known for its incredible video quality, the smoothness of its image processing, and how perfectly all its cameras work together. With the iPhone 17, the periscope system is combined with a complete upgrade to all the other lenses and the latest AI processing from the A19 chip. This means the total package might be better. While one competitor might win on sheer zoom numbers, the iPhone often wins on overall consistency, color science, and video performance. The addition of the periscope simply makes the iPhone a well-rounded contender in every single category, making it one of the most balanced and powerful camera phones available in 2025.
Conclusion
The leaked details about the iPhone 17’s periscope camera system show that Apple is not just making a small, yearly upgrade. They are making a huge commitment to mobile photography by finally integrating a key technology that rivals have enjoyed for a while. This folded lens is a sophisticated piece of hardware that transforms the iPhone’s zoom capability from a minor feature to a major strength, allowing for crisp, clear long-distance photos and professional-level portraits.
Combined with larger sensors across the board and smarter AI processing, the iPhone 17 is shaping up to be a camera that is truly powerful in every shooting situation, from wide landscapes to extreme telephoto shots. It levels the playing field with Android zoom champions and likely keeps the iPhone firmly in the lead for video. Instead of just catching up, Apple is building a beautifully balanced camera for everyone. Will this new periscope design be enough to make the average user start taking better, more creative photos right away?
FAQs – People Also Ask
Why are periscope cameras often found only on Pro or Pro Max iPhone models?
The periscope camera is an advanced and complex piece of hardware that takes up more internal space and costs more to manufacture than a standard camera lens. Limiting it to the Pro and Pro Max models is a way for Apple to differentiate its most expensive flagship phones, giving customers a strong reason to purchase the higher-end device if top-tier zoom performance is important to them. It is a common strategy in the smartphone world to reserve the most costly or physically largest camera innovations for the premium models.
What is the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom?
Optical zoom is far superior because it uses the actual glass elements inside the lens to move and magnify the image before it is captured by the sensor, maintaining full image quality and detail. Digital zoom, on the other hand, is essentially just a software trick: the phone takes the image captured by the lens and then crops and enlarges it on the screen, which makes the photo look less clear and often grainy or “pixelated.” The periscope camera delivers true optical zoom, which is why it matters so much.
Will the iPhone 17 camera module be physically larger because of the new lens?
Yes, although the periscope design is meant to reduce the outward thickness, the entire camera system is rumored to be larger overall. This is partly because of the new folded optics for the telephoto, and partly because other lenses, like the Ultra Wide, are also getting physically larger, higher-resolution sensors. Apple has likely tried to design the camera area to be more streamlined, but the camera bump on the back of the Pro models is still expected to be quite noticeable to accommodate all the advanced hardware.
What is the expected optical zoom level on the iPhone 17 Pro Max?
Based on leaks and released technical specifications, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is expected to offer a 4x optical zoom from its dedicated telephoto lens. Crucially, due to a high-resolution 48-megapixel sensor paired with smart image processing, it can also achieve an 8x optical-quality zoom by cropping the sensor, giving users the longest and most powerful zoom capabilities ever seen on an iPhone.
When was the iPhone 17 officially released?
The iPhone 17 series, including the Pro and Pro Max models, was officially announced in early September 2025, following Apple’s traditional annual launch timeline. The devices typically become available for pre-order shortly after the announcement, with the official availability and in-store sales starting about a week and a half later, generally around mid-September of that year.
How does the iPhone 17’s zoom compare to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra?
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, a major Android competitor, typically maintains an edge in pure, long-distance zoom power, often featuring a dedicated 10x optical zoom periscope lens, and sometimes even a dual telephoto setup for varied zoom ranges. The iPhone 17’s new system at 4x optical and 8x optical-quality zoom significantly closes the gap from previous models, but the Galaxy Ultra often retains the title for having the absolute furthest zoom reach in the industry.
What does “computational photography” mean for the iPhone 17?
Computational photography is a term for the sophisticated blend of hardware and software that phones use to take a picture. It means the phone’s chip and AI do much of the work after the shutter button is pressed, combining multiple exposures, reducing noise, enhancing colors, and correcting for lens imperfections. For the iPhone 17, this is powered by the new A19 Pro chip, making the final images, especially those from the new periscope lens, clearer and more professional-looking than ever before.
Is the periscope lens useful for more than just zooming in far away?
Yes, absolutely. While extreme zoom is the main selling point, a longer focal length, like the 4x zoom provided by the telephoto lens, is also considered ideal for portrait photography. It helps to compress the background and foreground, giving a pleasing, professional depth effect that flatters the subject. This lens is perfect for capturing people, pets, or still-life subjects with a beautiful, natural background blur.
Does the periscope camera technology make the camera slower to take a picture?
Generally, no, the periscope design itself does not make the camera noticeably slower for the user. Modern smartphones have extremely fast processors and sensor technology. While the periscope system has a longer light path, the speed of light and the powerful processing chip (A19 Pro) ensure that the photo capture and processing happen almost instantly. Users should not notice any lag when quickly switching to or shooting with the telephoto lens.
Will the new iPhone 17 camera be better in low-light conditions?
The iPhone 17 is expected to be much better in low-light situations, even beyond the main camera. The leaks suggest that the Ultra Wide lens, and possibly the new periscope telephoto lens, are both getting new, larger image sensors. Larger sensors can physically capture more light, which means less grain and more detail in dark environments. Combined with Apple’s upgraded Night mode software and the powerful A19 chip, all three lenses should offer a significant step up in low-light performance.
